Watercooling Or Thermalright 120 Ultra Extreme

dazftw

Which should I go for? I going to buy either next week and I dont mind which one...

Thermalright cooler cause its just easier and watercooling cause ive wanted to do it for ages now!

Just not sure which one to go for?

If im going watercooling ill go for the Swiftech H20 - 220 kit or Zalman reserator kit...?

Any opinions on them?

The thermalright ive read has problems with the base being out of shape or something?

Also the case is Antec 900 its got two holes drilled for hoses(must be a new revision of the case) any problems with mounting do you think?

Thanks

Daz

requiem1

DeafVision wrote:

Which should I go for? I going to buy either next week and I dont mind which one...

Thermalright cooler cause its just easier and watercooling cause ive wanted to do it for ages now!

Just not sure which one to go for?

If im going watercooling ill go for the Swiftech H20 - 220 kit or Zalman reserator kit...?

Any opinions on them?

The thermalright ive read has problems with the base being out of shape or something?

Also the case is Antec 900 its got two holes drilled for hoses(must be a new revision of the case) any problems with mounting do you think?

Thanks

Daz

well i don't know about mounting a water cooling kit in a 900 but i have two rigs both water cooled and similar components. They both have core2 duos 6600 and one is high flow with a danger den block and 1/2" tubing with a laing D5 and a double and single radiator and the idle temps vary between 22 degrees and 26 degrees and then hit around 37 degrees to 42 degrees at full load for a few hours. The other rig is a low flow and has a swiftech apogee, single rad and hydor l20 with 10mm OD/ 8mm ID tubing. The idle temps vary between 26 degrees and 31 degrees and then hit 45 degrees full load. These are the stock temps but if you take into consideration that the test on anandtech says they have a 6600 idle @21-23 degrees it must be a great and gives better performance and similar performance to my rigs.

Honestly if you're planning to use 1/2" tubing be ready to do alot of cursing cause they can be painful to set up but i wouldn't bother if those temps supplied by anandtech are true but i think dirkvodoo had a pretty high temps with his. However water cooling looks great and is quiet and the main reason people do it is because the difference between idle temps and full loads temps is smaller than that of an air cooler and greater headroom for overclocking as you know.

Reservator does not gove low temps from my experience but is really quiet and easy to do but i think they have a new one out which could be better than the one i built two years ago

dazftw

Yea I think its a no go for mounting the stuff inside the case.. Unless I move hard drives and cut holes and its just all too messy thats why I was thinking about the Zalman because its external! Ill have to look for some reviews of it tonight when I get home from work!

I want to turn the fans down onto low aswell make it quieter

game4it70

hi deafvision,
i spent a few hrs today lookin at reviews 4 both watercoolin systems in your post and couldn't decide what to go for so i'll be interested in this thread when then the guys "in the know" respond.
will u post your progress as i'm very interested in getting a kit myself and hopefully not frying my newish rig

PS. No offence meant Requeim re my post as in "IN THE KNOW"

awhir

ah deafvision ur like me last year

i went for watercooling and i got great temps for my cpu and gfx but watercooling can be a pain in the right tsty if ur gona be swaping stuf around everyonce and awhile.say if you wana change ur gfx and it needs a new block you got drain ur wc (pain) then refit the block and refill then cheak for leaks.

I would go for Air cooling as its very good compared where it was 3 years ago.I think if you are going for WC ur best off to make it a reall Wc rig like to buy a cool case for it and the likes.I dont like the idea of have a rad hanging on the back...........................

DanGerMus

There is a big difference here in the price and amount of work that has to be done. I mean on air your talkin what e70 and ten minutes to setup. as against a 200 or 300 and hours of choosing the right components and then setting them up i mean look at antis new rig nice bit of time and money consumed there.
I did mine recently too and after messin about with trying to put an external rad, twas only a dual rad btw, i just decided it was too awkward and messy looking, pipes all over the place. Best to keep it all in the one box imo. worked out well for me.
Temps will be lower with WC especially under load. Plus it's more fun. So it's down to time and money really. I have a Maze block lying around for my gfx but i decided to just not bother coolin it cos i'll probably upgrade it soon.

requiem1

happygandalf wrote:

I have a Maze block lying around for my gfx but i decided to just not bother coolin it cos i'll probably upgrade it soon.

Exact same situation with myself i have a maze block aswell and wasn't bothered fitting it cause of the hassle, honestly deafvision if you can get a high quality air cooler that can offer low temps such as ultra extreme i wouldn't bother with water cooling. For example i had to take apart a whole rig this weekend cause of a leaking reservoir and it was not fun and after two days of doing this i'm still not finished cause of leak testing and reseating of blocks to get lower temps etc.

dazftw

I wont be changing much around... The most im considering in the next year is another 2 gigs of ram another gtx and a 30" monitor...

Well this is before Christmas lol

Not sure how its going go but am starting to save now so we'll see over the next couple of months!

Watercooling really I dont mind spending money and putting the time into it would be grand by me just my case my cause me problems I dont want to buy a new one either cause I just bought another Antec cause the other one my dog broke :P

Anti

Stick with aircooling. Watercooling with 1/2ID is a nightmare, 10/8mm isnt any easier, but its so much simpler to setup. Also W/Cing with a 900 is a nightmare, there is no room at all unless you run with one dvd drive and one hdd. and mount a double rad in the front. You could always mount the rad outside, but thats a mess option.

@requiem. Since when is a liang dc pump considered high flow?, its only 600l/h. I have one myself, and its stupidly slow to move the water. Like at most 1 inch per second. Im going to have to drain the whole lot and stick in a 1200/1800 l/h pump in now.

L31mr0d

imo, i'd test out your first watercooling experiment on a rig you don't mind losing. Its one thing losing a €300 POS, but turning a €2500 rig into a fish tank will give anyone heart failure. This is one of the reason I steer clear of watercooling. The others have already been mentioned such as the hassle, the time, the cost and the rewards, which imo, aren't worth it. I also like to take components in and out of my PC fairly regularly so it wouldn't suit me either.

BUT, in saying that, if I had a spare rig, say a fileserver or folding pc, i'd try out watercooling on it, as it wouldn't bother me so much if it went tits up and leaked all over the place.

requiem1

Anti wrote:

Stick with aircooling. Watercooling with 1/2ID is a nightmare, 10/8mm isnt any easier, but its so much simpler to setup. Also W/Cing with a 900 is a nightmare, there is no room at all unless you run with one dvd drive and one hdd. and mount a double rad in the front. You could always mount the rad outside, but thats a mess option.

@requiem. Since when is a liang dc pump considered high flow?, its only 600l/h. I have one myself, and its stupidly slow to move the water. Like at most 1 inch per second. Im going to have to drain the whole lot and stick in a 1200/1800 l/h pump in now.

laing D5 dude not a ddc. i feel you're pain laing ddc is as bad a hydor. what pump are you going for?

Anti

Im not really sure yet. I need some advice on that, as i need a powerfull pump, but still quiet. As this ddc is louder then my 8800gtx and 7 120mm fans at full blast. Any ideas mate ?

Cuddlesworth

D5, hydor 50z(I have 1 lying around) or a DDC2 with a custom top.

Edit: Considering that you have a very restrictive system, I'm not really surprised that you find your water piddling about. 10mil tubing and small low flow blocks will do that.

dazftw

So air cooling is the way to go? I honestly dont mind!

Would mind getting a cooler for my GTX either... Whats the cooler for it? Cant think of it in my head now H3-0 something like that :rolleyes:

requiem1

DeafVision wrote:

So air cooling is the way to go? I honestly dont mind!

Would mind getting a cooler for my GTX either... Whats the cooler for it? Cant think of it in my head now H3-0 something like that :rolleyes:

removing the hsf from a gtx is a pain the ass like watercooling only do it if its really noisy and is giving crap temps but if neither apply don't worry about it

fao Anti: i'd go for a laing D5 cause they are the best its just they're seriously expensive in europe and most them only have 1/2" fitting but there is one on specialtech that has G1/4" threads that you could get a couple of 8mm alphacool barbs for it. you might reduce the temps on you're system a bit by changing the pump but draining a system like yours will take a bit of effort.

Anti

Balls

Looks like i might change the barbs on the blocks to 1/2" ID and get a d5 then. But still, after re-applying artic5 i have the cpu running below 30C under 24hour dual orthos, and the chipset at 40c. Which seems a bit high but much cooler then even with a hr-05-sli with a delta on it. Helped me go from 2.75 to 3.2ghz too. I might just put it off as im building a new c2d build on the cheap. Got the 650i fatality board for 80 bucks so far. So am looking for a c2d and 4gb of ram and im set.